“Doing” or writing ethnography has long implied that researchers immerse themselves in the worlds they study. But what does this mean and imply for the study of Laos today, decades after social science’s critical turn and in the context of global interconnectedness and geopolitical shifts?
This book forum addresses this question by showcasing the volume Being Present: Emerging Ethnographic Perspectives and the Study of Laos (National University of Singapore Press, publication in early 2026, co-edited by Paul-David Lutz and Rosalie Stolz). Being Present features ten ethnographically-grounded studies from a new generation of Laos’ scholars hailing from anthropology, linguistics, sociology, geography and development studies/practice. It highlights dynamics of “being present” in both senses of the phrase: in “the field” and “in step with the times”—as the Lao term for modern, thansamai, so wonderfully evokes.
The volume’s ten chapters cover topics ranging from infrastructure, health, trade, affect, agriculture and spirituality to China’s growing presence. They provide a window on the role and value of ethnography in capturing lived realities in Laos, and pose new questions about immersion, reflexivity and the contribution of Laos to both regional and interdisciplinary scholarship.
This forum will both present the book and provide a platform for discussing questions of ethnography, reflexivity, power and access in contemporary Laos and Southeast Asia more broadly. In short: we envision the forum as a creative mixture of book launch and audience-engaging roundtable that enables exactly the open discussion the volume itself seeks to stimulate.